O'Driscoll slams board's inaction

Brian O'Driscoll criticised the International Rugby Board last night for not condemning the tackle which ended his Lions tour until amateur video footage in their possession was broadcast by Sky TV.

O'Driscoll had a shoulder dislocated 41 seconds into the first Test against New Zealand after a joint tackle by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu which he describes as a "slam-dunk". The IRB's independent citing officer, Willem Venter, decided neither All Black player had a case to answer and took no action at the time, in June. But two days after the amateur footage was broadcast the IRB chairman Syd Millar announced the issue would be discussed at a referees forum and condemned spear tackles.

Millar said: "The entire rugby community, including the IRB, is sorry that Brian suffered serious injury in the match and the IRB is determined that, to the best of its ability, such incidents do not occur again."

O'Driscoll said he was not looking for an apology and has drawn a line under the incident but the video footage confirmed to him how badly the IRB had reacted at the time.

"The video didn't change anything. It was conclusive the IRB made an error in saying there was nothing in it," O'Driscoll said. "They had it for a period of time and only condemned the tackle when it came to light in the public arena. There are definitely question marks as to why it was only then."

O'Driscoll is damning of Umaga and Mealamu in his book, A Year in the Centre, which is a diary of the past 12 months, covering the disappointment of Ireland's grand slam failure and the Lions' defeat in New Zealand. But it took him only a matter of days to come to terms with the injury and, when Umaga rang to apologise, the matter, as far as O'Driscoll was concerned, was closed.

"I lived it, I didn't have to see any video to know what it was like. Even though it only happened once to me I remembered just what it was like - and it was exactly as it was in the video," O'Driscoll added. "It was a dangerous tackle and I still believe that."